New deadline to conclude WTO talks

TNNApr 15, 2007, 02.11am IST

Trade ministers from G-6 countries, including India, Brazil, US, EU, Japan and Australia, met in New Delhi this week to move the stalled WTO talks ahead. The ministers agreed to impose a new deadline of 2007-end to conclude the talks.

It was also unofficially agreed to work towards finalising the modalities for negotiations on agriculture and non-agriculture market access (Nama) by June-end. The ministers, who claim to represent various sections of the WTO membership, did not reach any breakthrough in numbers for bringing down agriculture subsidies and tariffs in both agriculture and indus-trial products.

They agreed to work closely with other members in various negotiating groups at the WTO headquarters in Geneva to ar-rive at the required numbers. The US, which had refused to take on commitments to reduce trade distorting agriculture subsidies in the last meeting of ministers in July last year, has slightly softened its stance. US trade representative Susan Schwab said it was joint responsibility of all countries to move together and US was more than willing to do its share.

Harley Davidson imports

US and India decided to indulge in some give and take this week. While Indiaagreed to remove restriction on import of US Harley Davidson bikes by allowing import of bikes with engine capacities of 800 CC and above following Euro 3 norms, the US agreed to allow im-port of mangoes from India.

Although India was quite liberal in allowing import of bikes by not putting any cap on numbers, the US was less willing to address concerns raised by India on quality standardization norms. The US has agreed to only partly share the expenses for pre-shipment inspection of consignments by US officials, that too only in the first year of exports. From next year, exporters will have to bear the entire travel and related expense of the inspecting official which will add to costs and might render Indian mangoes uncompetitive.